Way to go for these guys. For all the bashing Doug Parker and Co take on here, they are doing some things right. They have taken an airline that had the worst on time record consistently only a year ago, and has become one of the most punctual, being in the Top 3 the past four months. If they can get the baggage handling up there with their On Time, this will be one hell of an airline.

And this is all in spite of the fact they use PHL as a hub. I know CLT and PHX aren't ATC nightmares, but PHL is a constant nightmare, and to maintain a good on time with a PHL hub is remarkable.

Not to be a pessimist but we had a relatively mild winter in PHL so there were few snow storms to deal with and this is the period before the summer thunderstorm season. However i have heard that the ATC problems in PHL have greatly improved over the past several months.

Well CLT isn't turning into a nightmare, but it's getting to be a pain in the ass now for inbound flights. They introduced "metering" so that we now have to call the tower 30 minutes before we depart to get our slot into CLT. Of course this was announced while I was on vacation (and still am) so I'm not sure how it's working so far. But before I left we had "flow control" in which we would call about 5 minutes before engine start to get out slot. It wasn't that bad, but sometimes it would give us as much as a 15-20 min wait at the end of the runway. Pretty damn annoying.

Quoting Cubsrule (Reply 3):Once the new runway opens, though, CLT should be fine once again

I hope so. We got the new airport layout in our most recent Jepp updates and it shows everything they plan to do including taxiway extensions and extending 18R/36L on the 36L approach side. But they don't exactly seem to be moving at a lightening pace over there. It looks basically the same now as it did last summer, save for the several hundred trees they have cut down. (granted, not much earth moving experience here)

It's actually quite misleading. The last few months that US has been at the top in ontime performance has to do more with the fact that they padded their flight times more than anything else. Many flights have had 8-10 minutes or more added to their schedule to give the appearance of being ontime.

Quoting Sdexplorer00 (Reply 10):It's actually quite misleading. The last few months that US has been at the top in ontime performance has to do more with the fact that they padded their flight times more than anything else. Many flights have had 8-10 minutes or more added to their schedule to give the appearance of being ontime.

Actually, don't even bother looking at the arrivals of the flights.... just look at the actual departure times.... and you'll see a majority of flights departed right on time. It has nothing to do with the padding of any schedule. Compare block times of US with WN, AA, UA for routes which they both fly and you'll see the block times are all pretty much the same. So yes, ALL airlines pad their schedules a bit, but US doesn't appear to do it any more than others.

Quoting FlyUSCG (Reply 5):I hope so. We got the new airport layout in our most recent Jepp updates and it shows everything they plan to do including taxiway extensions and extending 18R/36L on the 36L approach side.

I thought they were planning on doing what CVG did and shutting down 18R/36L to extend it once the new runway is open. Have they moved some of that work up? Obviously, they can do some prep work (moving the road, for instance) with the runway open.

Quoting Sdexplorer00 (Reply 10):It's actually quite misleading. The last few months that US has been at the top in ontime performance has to do more with the fact that they padded their flight times more than anything else. Many flights have had 8-10 minutes or more added to their schedule to give the appearance of being ontime.

And what airline does not do this? Come on now, give the airline some credit. I have seen US make a major transformation, not just in the merger, but in everything. Doug Parker and his great employees are doing a darned fine job, and they deserve the applause. Kudos to those of you at US Airways, and I hope you guys get your hat tricks! This could be the momentum the employees needed to get this airline fine tuned. I have never seen a perfect merger, where everything comes out squeaky clean. It was a huge mess, and still has some cleaning up to do. Once all is in place, I suspect we might just see the nay sayers eat their words..... Oh yes, and hell aint froze over yet! GO US!!!!

No idea, I was just pointing out the fact that the new airport diagram shows all the planned expansions with dashed lines. It's pretty cool to look at, although now I can't put it in my little plastic protective sleeve.

I used to live in PHX and used to fly AWA and US Air to BWI twice a month when they were seperate entities.

America West used to be good and used to have a great ontime record. On the other hand US Air used to have the best in-flight service. Those were the good old days when they used to feed you, even on a late night flight

Now, I have flown the new AWA-USAir a few times in the past year and in my opinion, the overall quality has gone down..actually gone down a lot from what it used to be.

I am glad to see that they are getting better and being #1 for On-time arrival/departure is a good start.

Why is ontime departure so important....I dont give a crap if I leave ontime....I just want to get there ontime. I think A:14 should be alot more important than D:0

Sure close the door ontime then wait 15 minutes for all the bags....but hey you were out ontime...then you still get in 15 minutes last....or leave 2-3 minutes late and still get in ontime???? I would rather leave late and get there ontime then leave ontime and get there late!!!

Quoting OOer (Reply 22):Sure close the door ontime then wait 15 minutes for all the bags....but hey you were out ontime...then you still get in 15 minutes last....or leave 2-3 minutes late and still get in ontime???? I would rather leave late and get there ontime then leave ontime and get there late!!!

For most airlines departure time is when the aircraft pushes off of the gate. ACARS reports OUT times when there is one full revolution of the nose??? wheel, not when the door closes.

Although arrival time is important, an airline has the least amount of control over it. Weather, congestion, ATC holds (on ground and in air), slot times, airspace restrictions and airport layouts (landing on a far runway, closed runway or taxiway) can all effect arrival times and are all outside of the airlines control. The only thing that an airline can control, and that control is not absolute (gate holds) is departure time. That is why they are known as ETAs, Estimated Time of Arrival.